Carding machine



Feb. 25, l 930. J TJBBETTS 1,748,154

CARDING MACHINE Filed Oct. 4, 1928 fhpenwn 9 with greatdiificulty or not at all in their Patented Feb, 25, 1930 ma s STATES PATENT OFFICE mm rqrrsnnrrs, or ATHENS, GEORGIA, Assrenon r0 DAVIS & rumann MACHINE coMrAnY, or NORTH nnovnn, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION or MA SSA- CHUSETTS .cARmne MACHINE Application filed October 4, 1928, Serial No. 310,249.

' This invention relates to a carding machine and may be embodied in either or all of the series of carding machines usually employed in the carding operation but is particularly valuable in the breaker orfirst carding machine. j i

The invention has forits main purpose the carding of fibres with which are commingled fibrous materials that are usually carded passage through the carding machine and the removal from the fibre of foreign materials.

' The invention is particularly valuable in the carding of cotton or wool waste. Such Waste is commonly made up of sweepings, waste left on the bobbins oryarn carriers, small bits of cloth and similar fibrous substances which :accrue and are collected during the processes of manufacturing yarn and cloth and which, vwhen-reduced to fibre, are of very substantial value. The invention is also valuable in the carding of regular or virgin wool or other fibres having commingled there-' withclots .or bunches or other collections of fibrous material which, if carded to fibre, are

of value. Inthe ordinary carding operation,

such various clots, bunches or collections of fibrous material 1n the. form of sweepings,

tightly twisted yarn, strings, bits of cloth, etc., pass through the cardingoperation without being reduced to fibre because very little carding action takes place thereon. Furthermore, the f worker 'roll and the carding cylinderarotate with a great difierential in peripheral speed so that the passage of these uncarded-materials between the carding cylinder and the worker roll withoutbeing taken off by the worker places a great strain upon the teeth of the card clothing, theretoforeemployedi The result'not infrequently is'to strain, bend, injure and even break the teeth of the card clothing on either or both the cylinderand the workersof the carding 7 'machine. v

In the present invention the first one or more of the worker'rollsof the carding machine, instead \of being covered With the usual type of card clothing, are covered with clothing having needle-pointed teeth preferably set at a more acute angle to the roll periphery and in general ofa type of clothing usually employed on nappers and known-as napper clothing. Preferably also the backing of the card clothing thus employed on the first one or 'more'worker rolls is thinner and more flexible thanthat of ordinary card clothing and of the type employed in napper clothing, thus permitting the teeth to yield more readily during the carding operation.

In a carding machine embodying this invention, when the stock is delivered from the, feed end to the carding cylinder and arrives at the first worker and stripper unit, the

are carded out. Ifthe stock is of such a character that the first worker and stripper unit does not accomplish the desired result, the worker rolls of one or more succeeding worker and stripper units are equipped with the napper clothing in accordance with the invention so that any of these materials pass ing the first unit are worked and carded by the succeeding units. There is no strain or injury to the teeth of either the clothing of the carding cylinder orv that of the worker rolls because the needle-pointed teeth of the worker rolls penetrate and remove the material and also preferably yield to a substantial extent. v r I In a carding machine embodying this invention, there is the further advantage that if any, seed, straw, burrs, shives or any other foreign material which is not cardable passes in the stock to the, carding cylinder, it will be removed by the worker roll and will be forced down toward the 'baseof the teeth of the clothing thereon. This does not take place to any material extent with the ordinary type of card clothing, but with the napper type the fibres are pushed well down on the teeth and such foreign material is forced thereby down on the base of the teeth where it is held and prevented from being passed back into the stock. Thereafter periodically, as at the end of a days run, such foreign materlal 1S present invention.

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 2 illustrating the ordinary type of card clothing heretofore employed. i

As already pointed out, the invention may be applied to any suitable carding'machine and the feed end may be of any suitable type. In the constructionillustrated,the stock is fed from an endless apron -1 to a familiar type of Garnett breast 2. This Garnettbreast is equipped with the usual Garnett' fiat wire having the familiar saw tooth construction and this acts to work the stock quite thoroughly. From the Garnett breast the stock is transferred to the carding cylinder '3 and with the type of stock under consideration, there will still be in the stock the materials of a difficult cardable nature already referred to and the uncardable foreign materials already referred to. The carding cylinder 3 is covered withthe usual type of card clothing shown generally in Fig. 8 and revolves at a relatively high speed, for example, a common peripheral speed being 1200 feet-perminute. The worker and stripper units areshown surrounding the upper segment of'the carding cylinder each comprising a worker r0114 and a stripper roll 5. All the various rolls rotate'in the direction of the arrows. The first and second worker rolls rotate at a relatively low speed, an ordinary peripheral speed being fromctw-elve to thirteen feet per minute. Ordinarily these worker and strip 7 per rolls are provided with card clothing of the same type as that used ontlie cardingcylinder, such as that shown in Fig.3.

In the present invention, the first Worker roll 4, and, if necessary, one or more of the succeeding worker rolls are covered with card clothingof the napper typesuch as illus-. trated in Fig. 2. Inthis type of cardclothing the points 6 of the teeth are tapered down to the extreme point so that they fairlyv resemble needle points, whereas in the ordinary type of card clothing, the points 7 are undiminished in cross section and are simply bevelled off at the extreme ends. Furthermore, with the nappertype of clothing'emp'loyed, the points 6 of the napper type of clothing present an angle 8 with respect to the base which is very much more acute than the corresponding angle 9 of the ordinary typeof card clothing. Again preferably the substantially radially of the backing, while in the ordinary type the shanks of the teeth vextend diagonally through the backing, the

napper type of teeth yield much more readily.

- Itwill thus beseen that as'the stock on the carding cylinder 3 reaches the Worker and;

stripper unit, any of thediflicultly cardable:

materials in the stock, such as that already'referred to, will be'caught and penetrated by the sharp pointed teeth of the worker r0ll;ex-=

tending at arelatively acute 'angleandqremoved therefrom to the worker roll. So'also, any foreign materials will be removed tothe worker roll. There will thus be a carding action upon the cardable materials and as they are returned to the carding cylinder par tially carded, they will again be removed :to

the worker roll and thus thecarding actionwillbe repeated;

The foreign'materials will bepressed down toward the base of the teethof the clothing on the worker rollI If the diflicultly'cardable' materials resist the carding action to the extent that some arestillcarried on by the carding cylinder past the first Worker and stripper unit, then the worker roll of the next unit will; be equipped with the napper type of card clothing in a'ccordance with' this inventlon, and soon as the conditlons may require.

Thus the sharp-pointed teeth of thef'card clothing of the workerrolls equipped in: ac-

cordance with this invention, the relatively acute angle of these teethwith respect tothe base, and preferably also, the relativelyithing ner and more yielding backing all cooperate to secure the desired action on the stockand are found in practice to enable waste andother fibrous material to be thoroughly carded rapidly and efficiently and without injury to the carding machine. As an example of the results secured by this invention, it has been found that without changing the speed has been increased over'one-third. I I p 7 It will thus be seen that the series of worker and stripper roll units inthe-machineis divided into two sections, one" of which sections acts first on the material-being carded and that the first section,'whichmay comprise one unit or more than one unit as required, has the worker rolls covered with'the card,

clothing such as illustrated in Fig; 2' of the iie of the carding machineand'feeding the same I amount of cotton waste ofthe same quality thereto, the daily production of finished yarn rolls are illustrated, but any such devices may I drawings, while the other section has the workers covered with the ordinary type of clothing such as illustrated in Fig. 3 of the drawings. I

.No attempt has been made to illustrate the details of the carding machine and as already pointed out, the invention may be applied to any suitable type of carding machine and to'any one or all of a series of carding machines employed. so also none of the usual devices for catching and removing seeds, straws, burrs, shives and other foreign material which fall or drop from the stripper be used as desired. 7

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new, and desired to be secured by Letters Patent, is

1.; A carding machine comprising a feed end, a carding cylinder and a series of worker I and stripper roll units divided into two sections, one of which sections acts first on the material being carded and the second of which sections next acts on the said-material,

and in which the worker roll or rolls of the first section are covered with card clothing having needle-pointed teeth similar to those of napper clothing and inwhich the worker roll or rolls of the second section are covered with the ordinary type of bevelled end card clothing, whereby material which would ordinarily pass the worker roll or rolls of the first section without beingcarded is caught and worked thereby and whereby seeds, straw, burrs, shives and other foreign material are caught by the worker roll'or rolls of the first section and forced down on the teeth of th i clothing thereof.

2. A carding machinecomprisingthe construction defined in claim 1 in whichthe needle pointed teeth of the card clothing on the worker roll or rolls of the first section extend at an angle to the roll periphery which n is more acute than the angle between the teeth of the clothing of the other workers and the'cylinder. 1

3. A cardingmachine comprising the construction defined in claim 1, in which the card clothing on the worker roll or rolls of the first section comprises a backing in which the teeth'are set which is thinner and more flexible :than the backing of the clothing on the remaining worker rolls and cylinder thus permitting the teeth on the clothing on the 1 worker roll or rolls of the first section to yield more readily during the carding operation.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name .to this specification.

JOHN IE.v TIBBETTS. 

